My journey back from autoimmune disease

ED Days 5-8

by cebrought on August 19, 2013

I have been out of town to visit family and friends in Nashville so I have fallen behind on my blogging. Oops! Life happens. I actually started not to do this Elimination Diet because I knew about this trip, but I decided there were ALWAYS going to be things that could potentially trip me up and be a challenge so I needed to just go ahead and push forward. No time like the present, right?

Let’s start with Thursday. I was actually still in town on Thursday. And let me lay it all on the line…I cheated!! I just want to be totally transparent. I went to a Pure Romance party at one of my best friend’s homes and we had a little to drink. Ok, it was more than a little. One or two is my norm (and that is rare), but I had 3-4ish;) We started with shots of 360 grape vodka (this was in the car). No worries- we had a DD. I think the general consensus was that if we were going to sit around and talk about all the “unmentionables” that get mentioned at these parties then we might need a few before we walked in the door:) Once we arrived, I added my vodka to some seltzer water. As if that wasn’t enough, my friend had bought me apple ginger hard cider (cuz she loves me and knows I love cider) and I hadn’t had that flavor so I had to have 1 of those too! It was yummy! I didn’t really have any major issues related to the alcohol. I didn’t sleep as well as usual, which is typical when I drink, but other than that I fared pretty well for an old broad that rarely drinks. FYI- the party was a hoot!! We were so silly. It was tons of fun until the youngest member of our little group ended up over the toilet. We had to laugh a little that the 21-year-old newlywed just couldn’t hang with us soccer moms;) I don’t even think I should bore you guys with the food because it has been so incredibly repetitive. Let’s just hit the highlights of the next few days:)

Before we got in the car for the Pure Romance party. Are we posers or what? I obviously didn’t get the memo about the white pant!

I took a lot of food to get me through the weekend at my brother’s house. I made up a batch of salmon cakes (my husband did it actually). He can somehow get them to stick together even without the egg. I do not have that talent. Then I took my big batch of carrot puree and some cooked green beans and zucchini. Top it off with my pesto and there you pretty much have most of my meals. We did end up going out twice. The first time was dinner Saturday night and the restaurant had grilled chicken breasts with cilantro and green beans on the side so while mind-numbingly boring, it was diet appropriate. We went out again after church on Sunday and I had grilled rainbow trout and grilled zucchini. I feel pretty certain that there was a low quality oil in play and some seasoning that was questionable, but I seemed to tolerate the meal just fine. I even went to a birthday/graduation combo party for a friend who was graduating from a nurse practitioner program (her daughter was turning 3) and there was lots of food, cake, ice cream and booze and I just wasn’t even tempted. I drank my sparkling water and ran my mouth and was totally satisfied.

Addy digging into her cake

As for symptoms- I am currently suffering from some constipation. I know, TMI, but we have already talked about that. I pretty much don’t know the meaning of TMI! I started out on this diet with the opposite problem, but now the pendulum is swinging all the way to the other side. I also had a little mild discomfort after the Saturday night restaurant meal, but it went away almost as quick as it came. The only other issue I’m having is a weird charlie horse type cramp in my left calf. I woke up Sunday morning with it. I have had 3 of these types of cramps lately. I am wondering about dehydration or magnesium deficiency? Not sure. I have a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, so maybe I will have some more info after that.

The kids outside the restaurant Saturday night. We had to limit the stolen rocks from the rock garden!